SOA Watch

Each year Witness for Peace Southeast brings a group of passionate citizens down to the annual School of the America’s Watch convergence at WHINSEC. This year the convergence will take place in Nogales at the US-Mexico border.

Previously, the convergence took place at the The U.S. School of the Americas, (now the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation or WHINSEC) based in Ft. Benning, GA. This school trains Latin American military officers in combat techniques.

The SOA has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. These graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own people. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared”, massacred, and forced into refugee by those trained at the SOA.

To learn more about WHINSEC, see Lesley Gill’s book “The School of the Americas”.